Kyle Thornton

Kyle Thornton is a Conservative activist in Glasgow who is involved in a variety of local youth forums.

As the Scottish Conservatives are examining their role in modern Scottish politics maybe we should take a look at our more successful colleagues in Wales.

The Welsh Conservatives should be held up as a success story for the Scottish Conservatives to look to. From the 1997 wipeout, the Tories in Wales have built themselves back up to the point where the Conservatives topped the European Election poll in 2009, which has to be a fantastic achievement for a party that returned no MPs only 12 years previously.

But how did they do it? As I can see it, a factor in their success was that they simply became a bit more Welsh. I'll put it another way: they shrugged off all the talk of British this and British that and they were saying Wales this and Wales that.

That brings me to the Scottish Tories. We've been slowly recovering some ground in Scotland but at a very slow rate. The General Election result must be a wake-up call to the party that we need to do something different.